Polarity and Parallel Lines
by sachii.ballpoint
Summary: Shizuru, a girl from Kyoto and Natsuki, a girl from Tokyo, find themselves reluctantly trying to build new lives in a small town in the heart of Hokkaido. ShizNat
1. Calculated Chance

**Calculated Chance**

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They don't know each other, not on a personal level anyway, but for two people who've never truly met, their eyes have been well acquainted.

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Wine-like reddish browns to Brilliant bamboo-thicket greens.

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Neither are from here, Hokkaido, which both can't seem to like for different reasons.

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The girl who's name carries the blue vast skies and surf of summer is by equal definition hot and cold, walking with a personal breeze that makes everyone around her part like an ocean wave.

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Her foot taps to a one per second beat, as she waits for the train to come by, willing the world to work faster because she's used to the speed of Tokyo.

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Bright, fast, exciting and convenient Tokyo.

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Where her 16 years remain a phantom walking each time the thought of her passes someone she used to know. Or in most cases, someone who knew her.

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The other who is in every sense her total inversion is a magnet, with an invisible pull that invites conversation and company of people taking comfort in the warmth of her words that sound like a softly strummed koto.

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Traditional, calm, beautiful and richly complex, very much like Kyoto, the place she used to call home.

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Like any true magnet however, she repels those with a similar polarity, creating an unbreachable tension that sits between her and the girl who cuts crowds but conversely draws eyes, some of which are her very own.

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The train flies up to the station, with a wind following close behind, playfully whipping hair and loose clothing in chaotic frenzy, Shizuru, who looks mildly ruffled in the wake of it and Natsuki, looking equally tousled with her length of midnight coloured hair and yellow plaid skirt in disarray, like every morning of calculated chance, find each other.

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But unlike every other day, the gap closes just a little, when without meaning to, and before she could even think to stop herself, Shizuru's lips break into a smile, and Natsuki, cheeks and ears luminous with the rush of blood from the wind chill, in a show of uncharacteristic humour, smiles back.

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 **TBC**

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 **Sachii:** Testing a simple idea out, I don't know if there are stories of them in small towns living normal lives yet, so here it is! Planning on having this be a short multi-chapter one.


	2. After School Activities

**After School Activities**

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It had been a week since her patience had finally broken and Shizuru had barely caught sight of the other after, occasionally, almost like a ghost conjured by wishful thinking, a flash of dark hair flutters at the corner of her eye and disappears before she could begin to turn her head.

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In this part of town, the wind blows cold in summer and Shizuru buries her hands into her blazer pockets, red tipped ears slipping back into her mind like a warm day dream.

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"Have you thought about what club you'd like to join, Fujino-san? You were in tea ceremony last year before it was dissolved weren't you?"

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Kikuwa-san, a quiet girl in class seems to be making rounds, she was part of the Student Council, maybe looking for people who could help out, the elections after all, were right around the corner.

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"Yes, " Shizuru lied, "I've got something in mind".

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"Oh, then once you've filled out your form please give it to me, form submissions end on friday" she had said this not unkindly but her curtness gives Shizuru the impression she was partly disappointed, tapping the thin stack she had already collected before turning towards another group of girls in the corner, possibly to find better luck there.

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Truthfully, Shizuru would rather not be bothered by club activities, that was the point of joining tea ceremony her first year, they hardly actually did anything because kimonos, flowers and green tea every after school meeting would both be impractical and financially improbable, so they simply met up and discussed the history and theories of it and almost blasphemously drank black tea made from an electric teapot with a side of sembei, 'an informal gathering of strangers' she had once thought while there, tea wasn't particularly a topic of conversation that could last the whole three hours, so they'd talk about current events and sometimes things of a mildly personal nature before separating with more familiarity but very little true friendship.

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Shizuru was a good student, absolutely, but diligence had never come easy, it is, in her opinion, a stroke of simple good fortune that she had most likely been born with a natural ease for comprehension and an equally strong memory, one that may or may not be a blessing at this moment dropping her head onto folded arms, hoping to rid her mind of the girl who's smile had made the entire week of not seeing it a miserable set.

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A name was all she wanted, and maybe a chance for actual conversation.

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Because truthfully, every time that girl looked her way, that girl whose eyes seem vacant and far away, she felt special, and the thought of occupying some part of her day fills her with an unusual thrill she'd never had before, and like anyone who'd had a taste of something wonderful, greedily she was beginning to want more.

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"Fujino-san, someone from Class D wants to see you" Masashi calls from the door.

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From behind Masashi, a boy she'd never seen before stood waiting, shoulders squared rigid, like a man waiting for a death sentence.

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"I'll be right there" she returns, thinking literature might be a good alternative to tea ceremony, surely it was a club without much legwork.

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She pencils it down onto her form, folding it with a mental note to go and observe them tomorrow just to be sure.

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 **TBC**

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 **Sachii:** I actually intended the first chapter to be a preview and the rest to be of a more moderate length but shorter chapters may help me get this updated more often as I tend to write these in-between work and other things. Hope that's alright to whoever had found this interesting! and to answer Tera from the comments section, I haven't given up on that story yet but as it does require more time and effort than my other more willfully written works, I'm still waiting for real life to slow down, but thank you for sticking with me after all these years!


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